Horn Players by Jean-Michel Basquiat

Horn Players, 1983, acrylic and oilstick on three canvas panels mounted on wood supports

Just last month, I visited The Broad, a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. There, they had a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition that included a lot of his works from the 1980s.

Basquiat was a classic Neo-Expressionist painter and New York native, a place in which he took great inspiration from. Born in 1960, Basquiat spent his childhood going to museums and studying fine art. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was introduced to the graffiti culture around him. Basquiat started by putting graffiti around lower Manhattan under the name of “SAMO”. Then, he moved on to selling handmade postcards on the street. Later on, in the 80s, he opened up his first solo exhibition and worked closely with Andy Warhol. 

Basquiat’s artwork often included references to 70s and 80s New York. He specifically enjoyed showing the growing jazz scene with new and upcoming artists, such as Dizzy Gillepsie and Charlie Parker. Horn Players, made in 1983 with acrylic and oil stick on three canvas panels, depicted such a scene. It is a triptych, three panels, with the center panel showing a jazz hub and the right and left sides illustrating Gillepsie and Parker respectively. The left side has an abstract depiction of Parker playing the saxophone and emitting several musical notes. One of the most recognizable characteristics of Basquiat’s art is the amount of wordplay in the background. The right panel has the words “doh shoo de obee”, representing the singing that Gillepsie performed on stage. “Orinthology” is the title of a famous composition by Parker, “Pree” is his daughter, and “Chan” is his wife. Basquiat used wordplay to indicate the jazz players. 

When I first saw this work, I was excited because I recognized it from the AP Art History curriculum and it made me think about the idea of spontaneity. All of the messy lines and splotches of paint felt satisfying, in the way that it seemed like Basquiat was not paying attention little detail, unlike many traditional artists. Basquiat's work feels free.